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Marina brought up kamikaze in our discussion.
Documentary: Wings of Defeat features a kamikaze pilot who survived and a US sailor from a ship that was sunk by a kamikaze attack. They are interviewed and meet. Our NCTA partner at SPICE created lessons to accompany the film.
NPR: https://www.npr.org/2008/04/22/89622063/wings-of-defeat-kamikaze-stories-told-in-person
SPICE:
https://spicestore.stanford.edu/products/wings-of-defeat-a-teachers-guide

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In my regular Chinese history course, we spend a lot of time on the 18th century. The Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns are fascinating. Among the imperial projects they oversaw was the building of Yuanmingyuan, which was a sprawling set of gardens. One of them was designed by a Jesuit missionary-painter. You can read a lot about these gardens and how the imperial family loved them, spending more time there than in the Forbidden City. The gardens were destroyed by a British-French combined force in 1860. It remains a serious wound for many in China. The destruction is a theme, along with the Opium Wars which preceded it, that looms large in Chinese schoolrooms and documentaries. I first visited it with my Chinese students in 1982. Parts of it have since been restored/developed. Here's a BBC article about it: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30810596. China produced a feature film inspired by the tragedy (and to further condemn Ci Xi, the empress dowager). I don't know if you can see the whole film, but the trailer is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vkzAUeGmso It is possible to buy a dvd of the film for a reasonable price. A version with English subtitles (that kick in at the 9 minute mark) is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V26PRvdz-jg. The film, like many films, has many inaccuracies, but is worth at least watching for some scenes, including the opening that has no dialogue. They filmed it at the Forbidden City and the splendor and pageantry is very much on display. It also includes a classic moment about the young Ci Xi. You can ask me about that at our last session on 6/6.

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Hannah's right about looking at philosophies and religions can help students become more reflective about themselves, their own lives and communities. Sometimes learning about the values of other people and places can help us become more clear about what matters to us and why. It can help sharpen our own priorities and aims. Most kids and most of us most of the time careen from one task or activity to another without fully thinking about why we do what we do, why it matters - or what we might choose to do that is different. Becoming more deliberate in one's choices is hard, but it might be a step to finding greater satisfaction and fulfillment. Thanks to all of you for choosing to be educators and choosing to spend time learning a bit more about East Asia. I hope you think you made the right choice!

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The Manchus moved to incorporate Central Asia into their Qing empire in the 17-18th centuries. The best book on this effort is Peter Perdue's China Marches West. National boundaries have divided some ethnic groups, imposing restrictions on peoples who frequently traded and traveled across the region.

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I'm Clay Dube, director of the USC U.S.-China Institute. I'm really looking forward to this seminar with Prof. Vinayak Bharne. He's had such a wealth of experience in the region and, as a working architect and urban planner, is intimately involved in thinking about how design can facilitate life, work and community.

My own work is in Chinese history, particularly 20th and now 21st century economic and social history. I love to travel and enjoy photography, reading and films. I'm a bit of a podcast junkie, so don't be bashful about suggesting ones you've found interesting and useful.
Here's a photo from 1984, but I include it because it was partly seeing a picture of the Leshan Buddha in a textbook that interested me in going to China. I got there in 1982, but it took me a couple years to get to Sichuan.

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Betsy - delighted that you're interested in teaching about Islam in China as part of your courses. We've had workshops on just that topic since about 2004. That was before we put our teacher programs online. But we had one program aimed at teachers in 2020 that you can watch. It features my friend Dru Gladney, a friend of mine who was killed in a tragic accident two months ago. It also features a specialist in Uyghur music and a Venice High School vice principal who is from Xinjiang. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcl3VdqmWgk&list=PLZoSvm2n7tkcqaMPK7o7JSI53DViMc_Mf  This program focused on Xinjiang and the Uyghurs, but earlier presentations focused on the religion more generally and looked at different Muslim groups within China (e.g., Hui, Kazakhs). We can list some of our speakers and the readings they suggested.

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Molly - thanks for taking us to the exhibition. Nelson-Atkins is one of the most important collections of Asian art. The website has video and images for this exhibition: https://nelson-atkins.org/exhibitions/weaving-splendor/. You could put your students on a hunt (and ban letting them using search to immediately get answers) on items on virtual exhibition at a set of collections you designate. Ask a question that requires digging into the collection pages or videos (e.g., what does X symbolize, can you provide examples from X collection or X period). I know I'm a bit of a local booster, but LACMA also has an interesting textile collection. A long time ago, I saw a Japanese kosode exhibition and haven't forgotten it. Some examples can be found at the museum's website, but there's no collection page (as a Nelson-Atkins) to give fuller context. An example: https://collections.lacma.org/node/224956. Here's a young woman's robe: https://collections.lacma.org/node/225669

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Thanks, Molly, for sharing this visit. Here's a link to the museum page: https://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-hare-with-amber-eyes. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a Japan Pavilion and is proud of its netsuke collection. This video from 2009 shows off part of that collection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfqJHA87QM. The whole museum is undergoing dramatic change, but the pavilion-side of the project started early: https://unframed.lacma.org/2018/09/05/what%E2%80%99s-going-renovation-pavilion-japanese-art

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Hi Everyone - to join the discussion, please go to the "post reply" button at the top of the session thread. Click there. Where you see "subject," please type in your topic and put your remarks in the comment box. You can attach files (texts, images) if you like. Scroll to the bottom to click save.

You can also hit reply to respond to someone else's post.

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Hannah raises a great point about bringing in primary sources as examples of writing approaches. I don't know of great choices in this realm from this period in Japan, but the Wang Anshi memorial is a statement advocating a particular approach to educating and selecting officials. I've attached it here.  In Japan in the 1700s and 1800s, there was a lot of writing about how to govern, how to deal with the barbarian threat and so on. Some of the pieces in the Way of the Warrior collection from Sources of Japanese Tradition (attached above) might work.

Attachments:

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The heir to the throne question is a fascinating one for Japan. People are overwhelmingly in support of a change.
Japan Times asked three experts, including a well-known American scholar, to comment in 2019: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/07/16/national/japan-allow-females-ascend-throne/   

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko. Photo: Reuters

The involvement of temples in political affairs may have made attacks on them more acceptable to some. But the tension between the "do no harm" prescription (and the "thou shall not kill" commandment) and military affairs remains. Pacificist sentiment remains strong in Japan (despite leaders such as Nakasone and Abe pushing for Japan to be a "normal" country, including using military power. We had a great discussion of this last fall with Tom Le of Pomona College. Teachers read selections from his book (https://cup.columbia.edu/book/japans-aging-peace/9780231199797). Here's a Washington Post article Tom wrote: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/30/tokyo-wants-upgrade-japans-defense-capacity-demographic-crisis-could-get-way/ .

This 1985 article about Kyoto temples and modern political demands highlights tensions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/12/21/temple-tax-splits-kyoto-and-its-priests/85ae5303-1018-466a-9e91-22fc5f7cd322/

Last fall, there was a remembrance of the 1571 massacre (450 year anniverary): https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14440935.

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Hi Everyone - I'm Clayton Dube, director of the USC U.S.-China Institute. I'll be participating in this online course with you. I'm really looking forward to learning from Morgan Pitelka and to meeting you. Please do click "reply" and add your own self-introduction.

I teach Chinese history and politics, with particular attention to a) social and economic change since 1800, b) how Chinese see the world and how the world sees China, and c) U.S.-China relations. I love to travel, but have seen more of China than I have of the U.S. or anywhere else. I am a news junkie and love exploring cities and towns of all sorts.

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An expression dating from the Song dynasty helped a U.S.-based lawyer describe his experiences trying to visit family in China.
https://supchina.com/2022/04/15/its-like-another-world-phrase-of-the-week/

When he first landed in Guangzhou on January 1, Xue noted:

It felt like another world, like I had arrived on a different planet. Something felt wrong.

当时感觉恍如隔世，好像自己来到了另外一个世界，预感不妙。

Dāngshí gǎnjué huǎngrúgéshì, hǎo xiàng zìjǐ lái dàole lìngwài yī gè shìjiè, yùgǎn bù miào.

Shortly after that, he tested positive for COVID, which was the beginning of a series of stints in quarantine hotels in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Xue eventually left the country exactly three months later on April 1, without ever having visited his family.

 

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Jennifer's made a great point about the links between the peoples of East Asia. There was a great flow and fluidity and we have had borders and assertions of distinctiveness for so long that we sometimes think that they must have always existed. The world as it now exists has boundaries that are sometimes contested, but organizations (e.g., UN) and events (e.g., Olympics) are controlled by and reaffirm the importance of nations, flags and belonging. In building "us", "we" often make a point of distinguishing ourselves from "they" and "them." This identity-business seems quite a part of our nature, a survival instinct we developed and remain attached to.

When the exchanges of long, long ago (thousands to hundreds of years ago) happened, there was no doubt an awareness of difference, but also an appreciation of similarity (even if the similarity was merely a love of particular goods or profit). What Jennifer gets at, though, is that all important fact that exchange and mixing that was and is there between peoples and teaching about it is essential.

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Jennifer's right to remind us of the importance of rivers. Many who teach about early civilizations are already doing a lot about this. We can talk about technologies developed by early peoples, about the role of organizations at various levels in managing access to rivers. (Trade guilds, water management regimes - canals, etc.)

Some have argued that the need to manage the flow of water led some Asian societies to develop distinct governmental and social systems (hydraulic societies), though most scholars think that oversimplifies the situations. (I agree with the critics, but Wittfogel and his followers raise some interesting points.) See: https://www.britannica.com/topic/hydraulic-civilization and Wittfogel's own summary: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/anthropology/v3922/pdfs/wittfogel.pdf  It is certainly true that in Japan, managing irrigation systems led to great rural cooperation. In China's Jiangnan 江南 region, however, there is a lot of irrigation cooperation, but not much beyond that.

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